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Family Employment Awareness Training (FEAT)

The Family Employment Awareness Training (FEAT) was developed and implemented by the Beach Center on Disability, in collaboration with Families Together, Inc. FEAT is a 2-part training: Part 1 - Building the Dream of Employment and Part 2 - Identifying and Accessing Employment-related Resources. The purpose of FEAT is to reach out to individuals with disabilities, their family members, and the professionals who serve them to increase expectations for competitive employment and knowledge of federal and state employment resources available to increase and support the competitive employment of individuals with disabilities. Please click here for a look at our video on the FEAT work that we have done.

FEAT is a “train-the-trainer” program designed to build capacity across the state. We developed FEAT with funding from the Kansas Division of Health Care Finance using Medicaid Infrastructure Grant monies in 2010 through 2012. In 2013-2017, Dr. Judith Gross was awarded a NIDILRR Field Initiated grant, Assessing Family Employment Awareness Training, to conduct a quasi-experimental study to research the effectiveness of FEAT.

Key Training Principles

Everyone can work when provided with the appropriate supports and services.

Everyone can have a job that is both enjoyable and satisfying.

Everyone can make more money working than by relying on public benefits alone.